The older woman with the friendly smile and short blonde hair, formerly gray, lived alone in a spacious 3-bedroom, 4-bath, 28.000 sq. ft. waterfront “cottage.” It was two houses down from the young couple that recently moved into the 34,000 sq. ft. 5-bedroom manse with 3-car garage and 28-foot sailboat in the yard atop the bluff overlooking the bay.

The man drove a snappy red BMW convertible (14 years old) and his wife a green Honda SUV (three years old) that was ideal for taking the two boys to hockey practice, the beach and sailing lessons.

So it wasn’t unusual that the federal and state government men who drove by to assess the situation saw this and decided, “Oh yeah. They can afford it!”

Subsequently, flood maps were redrawn by the federal bureaucrat et al to include these high above-water homes in new flood maps and resultant insurance increases in the thousands of dollars. The state employee and his Beantown cohorts juggled excise tax policy to gain long-term income for the government and a source for their next pay raise. Hey! One look at these beautiful homes and cars and it is safe to assume the owners are loaded, right?

Within two years, the elderly woman, her savings depleted by an economic downturn and loss of CD income, was in a modest one-bedroom apartment and the young couple, he out of a job for 14 months, were living with mom and dad somewhere in Wisconsin.

Dear governments: Don’t assume, says the maxim. It makes an ass out of u and me.

Fortunately, some of the peoples’ representatives to state and federal governments, such as the Cape’s 9th District U.S. Rep. William Keating, respond when the people remind them, as in the fictional illustration above, that what you see is not always as telling as what you don’t see.

When the federal flood-insurance bureaucracy itself went $40 billion in the hole as the result of hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and needed to raise cash for solvency, it did some things that were not in the best interests of the lower common denominator of flood-threatened homeowners. It increased prices drastically – in the thousands of dollars - for some who were already just holding their own.

This has a familiar ring, because government is not the only player in the insurance game. Private, that is to say, profit-making insurance companies in this state have been going bonkers in the last decade, drastically and unfairly reducing their hurricane risks by shedding long-time client properties using new and unilateral risk lines and questionable computer models as their reason.

It’s essentially what the government was doing with some of its new flood-zone maps that caught Keating’s attention. As private insurance profiteers used Florida computer models to unfairly judge risk on Cape Cod, the federal flood zone cartographers used Pacific Coast models to determine risk on the Massachusetts coast.

Double rates whammy, no?

As Paula Aschettino of Brewster, founder of Citizens for Homeowners Insurance Reform, has caught the attention of state politicians in her group’s battle for hurricane insurance rate fairness on Cape Cod vis-à-vis lower inland rates, Keating jumped on FEMA’s methodology used for this state’s region when establishing the new flood zone maps. FEMA, it turned out, used the Pacific Coast model to redraw the flood-zone maps of the New England coast, a process Keating claimed did not “truly reflect flooding found on the Atlantic Coastline in New England.”

With an eye on the future, Keating filed a provision to the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, recently signed into law by President Obama, that requires FEMA to certify that future flood zone maps are drawn using the most up-to-date and accurate science available.

“I am pleased the Keating Provision was included and signed into law. It will guarantee that communities’ maps are drawn with methodology that is appropriate for their region, ensuring that flood insurance premiums will be fair and accurate,” Keating said.

We might note that Keating enlisted the help of UMass Dartmouth scientists and engineers from the school’s departments of Marine Science and Technology and Applied Coastal Research and Engineering who provided solid evidence for Keating’s provision.

Some people of different political bent still cling to the notion that all waterfront home and fancy-car owners can afford what they have and then some, so why not gouge them for the privilege of standing on labor’s shoulders?

Could it be because it is simply unfair?

Keating has come through on the flood issue. Now the state needs representatives to follow suit and help Paula Aschettino fix the hurricane insurance inequities foisted on Cape Cod and waterfront communities by the harder-to-fight private insurers that are top-heavy with lobbyists and bull dung.

Next, take on the auto excise tax folks to fix another inequity based on the assumption that driving an expensive car means you swim in money forever, to wit: A two-car family in Hyannis is expected to pay an excise tax this year of $102 for a beat-up 1997 (17-year-old) Saab convertible but only $86 for a 1996 (7-year-old) low-mileage Honda Pilot. Does that make sense?

Town Collector Maureen Niemi explains: “These values are set by the Registry of Motor Vehicles.... not the Town of Barnstable!

The RMV uses NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association Official Used Car Guide). The figures are the manufacturer's list prices for vehicles in their year of manufacture. Under M.G.L. c60A,s.1, the RMV establishes its own formula for valuation for state tax purposes whereby only the manufacturer's list price and the age of the motor vehicle are considered.

The original price of the Saab was probably (and arguably) a lot more than the Honda Pilot (more bells and whistles) and the level-off year (5th year) remains forever until you get rid of the vehicle.

A more equitable formula would place more weight on age than initial price considering the ravages of age and their expense. Keating, Aschettino ilk needed in the state Legislature.

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